I’m reviewing The Follower by Koethi Zan. Kidnapped and taken to an isolated house, Julie meets Cora – a disturbing and evil woman who is keeping Julie captive. This is an Amazon Vine Review of a free book. Here are my thoughts:

^^ I’d heard (but not read) a lot of great things about Koethi Zan’s previous book The Never List, so I was keen to read The Follower. Sadly, I struggled to get any real enjoyment from this story. The beginning started off really exciting and promising, but then quickly dulled. Even though I kept reading to see how the story developed, something felt missing. It just didn’t hold my attention very well at all.

^^ I thought it quite clever how the story became more about two women, Julie and Cora, meeting under unusual circumstances than about the cult leader James and his demands. It’s a character driven plot with a lot going on. The past and the present intertwine and we get to delve into the minds of both the female characters discovering Cora the crazy “wife” of the cult leader is even more dangerous than Julie is first lead to believe.

^^ Adam, an ex-policeman, has a thing for hunting down abducted women because of something that happened in the past, but I’m afraid his character and story felt more like an afterthought, than adding any real depth to the plot.

^^ In many ways it’s a darkly disturbing read, because of the way one girl has been kidnapped and the other who is looking after her – although free to roam – is actually just as restricted as the other. The cult leader has both of them under control and captive in their own way.

Overall: The Follower turned out to be an okay read, but it didn’t involve me enough to really care how it ended. And what of the ending? Well, that’s also another shocker, and not necessarily a good one.